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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the concept of God do, in Edmund Wilson's account?

2. What does status give a man power to do, in Edmund Wilson's account?

3. What does Wilson offer as evidence of cross-cultural epi-genetic rules?

4. What is the problem with sociology, in Edmund Wilson's estimation?

5. How many billion people can the earth sustain, theoretically?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the consilient view of religious ethics?

2. How does art look through the gene-culture evolution paradigm Wilson offers?

3. Where does ethics come from, in E.O. Wilson's account?

4. What role does the incest taboo have in genetic and cultural development?

5. What does Wilson say the liberal arts should address?

6. What is the purpose of the social sciences, and how does Wilson distinguish the social sciences from the physical social sciences?

7. What social problems does Wilson say are caused by failures in social sciences?

8. What ethical perspective does Wilson call the Transcendental view?

9. What does Wilson say is the relationship between human genetics and the development of culture?

10. What threats to contemporary culture does Wilson describe, and how is consilience useful in answering them?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What difference is there between how individuals experience consilience and how societies experience consilience? Is the best audience for 'Consilience' really a society, or are there uses for consilience in individual lives? Who do you have to be to 'use' consilience? Who is Wilson's audience?

Essay Topic 2

Wilson's book begins and ends with a call for better efficiency and use of knowledge in solving problems. To what extent is consilience really Wilson's response to the dangers of industrial modernism? Is consilience really about knowledge and disciplines, or is it about clearing the way for scientists to contribute their experience to solving problems?

Essay Topic 3

Is there a contradiction in how Wilson distinguishes between the social sciences and natural sciences, and yet argues for the overlap between all forms of knowledge? Is he saying that branches of knowledge are distinct, or not? Is he saying that all branches of knowledge are linked or not?

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This section contains 765 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample